Uhuru stakes future on long-term plan

There was good news on the law and order front. The courts are to be computerised and funds have been provided to hire an additional 20 Commissioners of Assize – a sort of judge. It would have been better still if the size of the police force were doubled or even trebled.

There were several allocations to infrastructural expansion, which had been mentioned prior to the budget.

A new standard-gauge railway to replace the current narrow-gauge one, an expanded rural electrification programme and various urban transport solutions were proposed.

There were some welcome and even, possibly ambitious proposals on IT: Ksh1.3 billion ($16.6 million) for Mobile Computer Labs for each constituency’s schools, “digital villages” in rural areas and the launch of a so-called One Million Laptop/Computer campaign to get students funding to help them buy computers.

At the end of the Minister’s speech, MPs seemed more than usually eager to congratulate him. As it turned out, a large chunk of expenditure will now be channelled to Constituency Development Funds (CDF).

Funds to be disbursed this way include rural road building money and special “Economic Stimulus” funds.
Each CDF committee will control approximately Ksh86 million ($1.102 million).

It was music to MPs ears since they control CDF funds via their proxies on CDF committees. More money to be used at local levels came in the form of funds for development of market centres, fish farming, jua kali sheds construction, the Youth Development Fund and the Women’s Enterprise Fund.

The tourism sector got a reprieve by being allocated Ksh800 million ($10 million) to bail out businesses in the sector that need financial aid.

But only Ksh400 million ($5 million) was allocated to marketing — meaning that it is clearly the government’s intention that the players do their own marketing. The minister went on to specify that the marketing was for the “high end of the market.”

The country has never been able to attract more than two million visitors — half the number of visitors to Johannesburg alone — despite its ample attractions.

Surely it makes sense to target all ends of the market considering that these “high-end” visitors have never really made a mark on our economy, if we are to be completely frank.

Assertions that Tanzania, for example, is receiving a much higher return per visitor are a distraction from the true position — the entire industry is unacceptably small and the focus should be on increasing the total number literally tenfold, before starting to be too choosy about who should be allowed to look at your attractions.

Away from industry and commerce, the minister extended the lower threshold for taxation of the disabled to Ksh150,000 ($1,923) per month (it is Ksh10,164 or $130 for everyone else), and thus operationalised a law that has in fact, been in place since it was assented to in 2004.

He extended a further deduction of up to Ksh50,000 ($641) on their taxable income for drugs, equipment, services and treatment.

A welcome change was the introduction of rules to limit the prices the public sector has to pay for the goods and services it procures.